the book woman of troublesome creek by kim michele richardson

Four years later, Cussy writes to Queenie, revealing that Honey is now four. Despite Doc’s protests about Cussy Mary’s genetic condition, Jackson is arrested. Several months later, Jackson and Cussy Mary get married in town, but the sheriff arrests Jackson as they leave the courthouse: He has broken the state’s miscegenation laws.

She accepts, but before she can tell Pa, the miners bring back his body from the mines, where he was killed when a pillar collapsed. Cussy Mary promises to care for the new baby. Willie hanged himself after seeing the baby was blue. Inside the Moffits’ house, she finds Angeline, dying after giving birth. On her route, Cussy Mary finds a live baby hanging under a blue body: Willie Moffit, who had the blue gene. However, the townspeople still reject her, and the medicine gives her unpleasant side effects. She takes the medicine to Willie Moffit and gives the food to hungry schoolchildren nearby.ĭoc finds a medicine that can turn Cussy Mary’s skin white.

However, Doc gives her medicine and food in return. She agrees, though the experience is painful she is drugged to get the samples. He tells them he won’t talk about what happened if he can do medical tests on Cussy Mary in Lexington. Doc pronounces Vester dead but warns that people will be suspicious because they are Blues. When Pa finds Vester Frazier in their yard, he shoots and kills him. As Cussy Mary’s relationship with Lovett grows, Pa becomes increasingly involved in the miners’ union, and his involvement worries her it is dangerous to work against the company that oversees the mining in their town. She meets a new patron, Jackson Lovett, and they bond over their shared love of books.Ĭussy Mary continues with her work, going into town to the Library Center, where the White women discriminate against her, but where she has become friends with a Black librarian, Queenie. Shortly after her visit, Preacher Vester Frazier (Charlie’s cousin) assaults Cussy Mary in the woods. She visits her patron, Angeline Moffit, a young woman who is pregnant by her husband, Willie, who has been shot in the foot and is dying. On their wedding night, he beats and rapes her before dying of a heart attack.Ĭussy Marry returns to work after a self-induced abortion. Eventually, Charlie Frazier does marry Cussy Mary. However, no suitor wants to marry Cussy Mary, despite her generous dowry, because of the color of her skin.

She lives alone with her father, who made a promise to her recently deceased mother that he would see her respectably married. Set in a hilly area of rural Kentucky, The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek focuses on Cussy Mary Carter, a 19-year-old librarian with a genetic condition that turns her skin blue.

The book woman of troublesome creek by kim michele richardson